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Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use Of

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Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use Of T O EN F J TM U U.S. Department of Justice R S T A I P C E E D B O J Office of Justice Programs C S F A V M F O I N A C I J S R E BJ G O OJJ DP O F PR National Institute of Justice JUSTICE National Institute of Justice R e s e a r c h i n B r i e f Jeremy Travis, Director May 1997 Issues and Findings Guns in America: National Survey on Discussed in this Brief: Results of a nationally representative tele- Private Ownership and Use of Firearms phone survey (1994) on private ownership and use of firearms by by Philip J. Cook and Jens Ludwig American adults. The survey pro- vides the most complete data avail- able on the private stock of The United States is unique among • Methods of, and reasons for, firearms firearms in the United States. wealthy nations in its vast private inven- acquisition. tory of firearms. The nearly 200 million • Storage and carrying of guns. Key issues: With nearly 200 mil- guns in private hands are used in part for lion guns in private hands, firearms recreation, mostly hunting and target • Defensive use of firearms against crimi- have an important impact on the shooting. But what engenders the most nal attackers. quality of life in America. What is the size and composition of the public controversy over firearms is their Nation's private gun inventory? use against people during either the com- Gun ownership What are the methods of, and rea- mission of or defense against crime. Prevalence. According to conventional sons for, acquiring firearms? How Gun advocates regard firearms as an im- wisdom, about half of American house- are firearms stored? How fre- holds own guns, a belief affirmed by a quently are guns used against portant crime deterrent and source of protection, while control advocates de- long series of national polls dating back criminal attackers? 1 nounce guns for the damage they do in to 1959. Yet data from the 1994 tele- Key findings: The survey data and the hands of criminals. What both groups phone survey (National Survey of Private analysis yielded the following results: can agree on is that widespread owner- Ownership of Firearms—NSPOF) indi- cate that just 35 percent (plus or minus • In 1994, 44 million Americans ship of firearms has an important impact 1.3 percent) of households own guns. owned 192 million firearms, 65 on the quality of life in America. million of which were handguns. This estimate may be somewhat off the Although there were enough guns To learn more about the role of firearms, mark but not by much. Conventional wis- to have provided every U.S. adult the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) dom appears out of date. with one, only 25 percent of adults sponsored—through a grant to the Police actually owned firearms; 74 per- Foundation—a nationally representative The best available survey series on gun cent of gun owners possessed two telephone survey in 1994 on private own- ownership is the General Social Survey or more. ership and use of firearms by American (GSS), conducted by the National Opin- ion Research Center. Its estimates have • The proportion of American adults (see "Firearms Survey Methodol- ogy"). This Research in Brief reports been lower than some others, in the range households that keep firearms ap- of 40 to 43 percent during the 1990s. In pears to be declining. some of the survey's more important find- ings, including the following: particular, the GSS estimate for 1994 was • Sixty-eight percent of handgun just 41 percent. Another telephone sur- owners also possessed at least one • Size, composition, and ownership of the vey in 1994 produced a still lower esti- rifle or shotgun. Nation's private gun inventory. mate for gun ownership, 38 percent of households.2 continued… R e s e a r c h i n B r i e f Issues and Findings Concentration. Despite enough guns in uted across the population, as is evident continued… private hands to provide every adult in from exhibit 2. Most striking is the gen- America with one, only one-quarter of der gap: 42 percent of men but just 9 per- • Gun ownership was highest among middle-aged, college- adults actually own firearms. Those who cent of women owned guns at the time of educated people of rural small- have one gun usually have several: 74 NSPOF. (The gap is even wider when the town America. Whites were percent possessed two or more in 1994. focus is on whether the respondent ever substantially more likely to own owned a gun.) With respect to race, guns than blacks, and blacks more Gun ownership is quite concentrated but whites were substantially more likely to likely than Hispanics. not more so than for other durable goods. own guns than blacks (27 versus 16 per- In marketing circles, the "80/20 rule" cent), and blacks more likely than His- • The most common motivation suggests that the top fifth of all consum- panics (16 versus 11 percent). But for for owning firearms was recre- ers of a product typically account for handguns alone, the ownership rates ation. Forty-six percent possessed a four-fifths of all purchases by value. gun primarily for protection against among blacks and whites were nearly NSPOF data indicate that the top 20 per- crime. equal (13.1 versus 16.5 percent). cent of firearm owners possessed 55 per- • There were 13.7 million firearm cent of privately owned firearms.3 Of gun Gun ownership (and handgun ownership) transactions in 1993–1994, includ- owners in 1994, 10 million individuals was highest among middle-aged,5 college- ing 6.5 million handguns. About owned 105 million guns, while the re- educated people of rural and small-town 60 percent of gun acquisitions in- maining 87 million guns were dispersed America. But one of the best predictors of volved federally licensed dealers. among 34 million other owners. gun ownership was the presence of fire- arms in the respondent's childhood home. • About 211,000 handguns and Persons owning several guns tended to 382,000 long guns were stolen in People whose parents possessed guns have varied collections, including rifles, noncommercial thefts in 1994. were three times as likely as others to 4 shotguns, and handguns. We find that 68 own one themselves. In fact, 80 percent • Slightly more than half of all pri- percent of handgun owners also owned at of all current gun owners reported that vately owned firearms were stored least one rifle or shotgun, suggesting their parents kept a firearm in the home. unlocked; 16 percent of firearms some experience and interest in the were stored unlocked and loaded. sporting uses of guns. Exhibit 1 provides Motivations. The most common motiva- • In 1994, about 14 million adults additional data on the composition of pri- tion for owning firearms was recreation. (approximately one-third of gun vate gun collections. As shown in exhibit 3, about 35 percent owners) at least once carried a fire- of gun owners (15 million people, 8 per- arm in their vehicles or on their Demographic patterns. In 1994 gun cent of the adult public) hunted in 1994, person for protection. ownership was far from uniformly distrib- and about an equal percentage engaged • Evidence suggests that this sur- Exhibit 1. Composition of Gun Ownership (1994) a vey and others like it overestimate the frequency with which firearms Own were used by private citizens to de- Handguns Only fend against criminal attack. Own 1 12% 20% Target audience: Criminal justice Own 2+ and public health researchers and 8% practitioners. Legislators and policy- Own Both Own 1 makers at all levels of government. 44% 13% Own Long Own 2+ Guns Only 23% 36% a. There were 44 million gun owners in 1994. 2 R e s e a r c h i n B r i e f Exhibit 2. Gun Ownership Patterns (NSPOF Estimates, 1994) Total 16 9 25 Male 26 16 42 Sex Female 7 2 9 Percentage Owning Handguns (Whether or 18–24 8816 Not Owning Long Guns As Well) 25–39 Age 16 7 23 xx xx xx 40–64 21 11 32 Percentage 65+ 11 9 20 Owning Long Guns Only Total Percentage White 17 10 27 of Gun Owners Race Black 13 3 16 Hispanic 7411 Less Than High School 10 8 18 Education High School Diploma 15 9 24 More Than High School 19 10 29 Yes 23 13 36 Parents Had Gun in Home? No 7411 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Percentage of Respondents Owning Guns in sport shooting other than hunting. But most persons do not own guns, and moral," or otherwise objectionable. Given the substantial overlap between the NSPOF included several items to The remaining one-third were at least the two groups, about half (23 million) find out why. In 1994, about two-thirds open to the possibility of obtaining of the Nation's 44 million gun owners of gunless adults were actively opposed firearms and might do so if their finan- participated in a gun sport during to having guns in their homes because cial condition or motivation became 1994. Of those who owned only hand- they viewed guns as dangerous, "im- stronger. For many, the needed moti- guns in 1994, 40 percent used them recreationally, almost entirely for sport Exhibit 3. Recreational Use of Firearms—Percentage of Gun Owners Who shooting other than hunting. Hunt, Do Other Sport Shooting, Do Neither Another reason cited for firearm own- ership was self-protection.
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